Due to recent reports of problems receiving emails, CP has switched to a new method of delivering emails. If you have any problems receiving emails please post a thread in the Help / Suggestions sub-forum or use the Contact Us link at the bottom of the forum page.

We all know about Jay Feater's Executive of the Year award as GM of the Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. We also know that he wasGM of the Lightning for oughly six years, from February 2002 to 2006. He also won the Excutive of the Year award as GM of the AHL's Hershey Bears in 1997 and also was at the helm when they won he Calder Cup. It's hard to overlook his track record, a Cup is a Cup after all. But what about his actual moves as a GM? What kind of moves can we expect him to make as GM of the Flames? I decided to compile some notes about his transactions as GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and if any other posters would like to add to this feel free.

Thank goodness Feaster collected a lot of picks in his first year as GM because he found a few late-blooming gems in the later rounds, most notably Paul Ranger, now the center piece of the Ligthning's blueline. Out of 13 picks, 10 were blanks seeing no NHL games -- although to be fair, most of the picks were in the later rounds.

Ah, the famous Riku Helenius pick. A real head scratcher at the time, as Helenius was not that highly ranked. For good reason, it turns out.

I'm going to skip 2007 and 2008 as they're still too early to call, but suffice to say, they don't look good. I guess the lesson here is that Feaster probably should take a hands-off approach to drafting, leaving the work to his scouts. I'm not sure I would even want Feaster choosing the scouting staff, who was his head scout in Tampa anyway? Whoever it was, they should stay home. His only notable pick in six years (not counting Mr. Stamkos) was Paul Ranger, a late-round late-bloomer long-shot.

Trades

First off, Feaster was not responsible for most of the core that won the Cup in 2004. Khabibulin, Lecavalier, Richards, St. Louis, Boyle, Kubina, Andreychuk, Modin, Sarich, etc. were all acquired or drafted by his predecessors. But there were still contributions he made to that roster...

Feaster's first trade was kind of a mixed bag. Weekes was still highly regarded at the time as a potential starter. Shane Willis was a talented forward who's career was seriously hampered by concussions. Then there's the famous Flames' bust, Chris Dingman, who was actually a pretty useful checker for the Lightning in the 2004 run. Considering Weekes didn't amount to anything, it's kind of a wash.

Feaster's second trade was to acquire tough guy Andre Roy as well as a 6th round pick which ended up being Paul Ranger. In return he gave up Juha Ylonen, who was never seen again. Overall a good minor deal, adding some much needed toughness to the roster.

This trade was panned at the time, Fedotenko for a 1st round pick? But in retrospect it doesn't look quite as bad as it once did. Fedotenko provided some much needed goals in their Cup run and Pitkanen is nowhere near where he was once projected to be.

A minor deal at the time, but one that should not be overlooked. The Lukowich acquisition really turned Dan Boyle's game around. The Boyle-Lukowich pairing solidified the Lightning's defense and was a big reason for their success in 2004.

Now as terrible as these trades may be, Feaster claims that Lightning ownership was interfering at this time. So I'm not sure we can blame Feaster entirely for these moves. And to Feaster's credit, he is not alone in making that claim.

I mean do these trades look at all consistent with his trading strategy prior to Koules/Barrie?

Signings

Feaster, despite being a former agent, was not very active in free agency as the Lightning GM between 2002-2005. Mainly because he couldn't afford to be in a pre-CBA era.

2003-06-19 Signed Eric Perrin as a free agent.

A depth acquisition, but Perrin was surprisingly useful in the faceoff circle during the 2004 run.

I really hope it was just a scouting issue because, to be honest, Feaster's track record kind of scares me. His drafting makes Darryl's picks look good, and I was not impressed with the returns he got on Richards and Boyle. But he has said that he's going to lean heavily on Michel Goulet who did a pretty good job with the Avs, so maybe there is hope.

Feaster's 'strength' is contracts. I really hope he has learned from his mistakes. Yes, Vincent was a top player in the NHL at the time, and they won the cup. However, that is a very, very ugly contract regardless of how you look at it. Compare his to Crosby or Ovie's.

His drafting has been bad. His trading has been bad. Yes, he can DEFINITELY have learned from his mistakes, and become a much better GM. I just see him as a 'legal guy' who knows how to talk well. I would be much more comfortable if Michel Goulet.. heck, even Jim Playfair - would be the GM to be honest. Yes, not fair to 'hate on the guy' right away, but definitely fair to look at his track record.

Yes, he won the Stanley cup, and really it is 'arguable' how much of a hand he had in building up that franchise - considering the GM and him at the time were butting heads (I searched for the article again, but couldn't find it). Likewise, it is 'arguable' how much of a hand he had in 'destroying' Tampa after the cup, signing those players to their contracts (though the new ownership group had an impact on that).

He gets a second shot with the Flames - however temporary it is (or not). I am just not convinced he is 'the guy' to go with. However, trading away assets for draft picks and prospects is probably a heck of a lot easier than trading for NHL players and trying to build a contender, I would think. I would really hope he starts making use of his scouts as well as Playfair who sees a lot of the other team's prospects regularly.

To be fair to Jay Feaster, he did talk about how he does believe in the draft, and building through the draft. He then owned up to having a bad track record in the draft, so its not like hes out there talking about how he drafts well. This will have to dramatically change this year, and he has already talked about getting a lot of picks.

His drafting makes Darryl's picks look good, and I was not impressed with the returns he got on Richards and Boyle. But he has said that he's going to lean heavily on Michel Goulet who did a pretty good job with the Avs, so maybe there is hope.

When it comes to a GM's draft record much of it has to do with his scouting staff, and how many resources ownership provide them with to do that job. Although that is my biggest concern here is that Feasters drafting in Tampa wasn't that great but a couple years away and time as an assistant may give him a new perspective. It might also help to have some better people around him to work with. IMO it was a lack of good depth on the Lightning to complement those star players that really hurt that team after they had to pay the big boys. But in fairness to Feaster the Lightning never were a very strong organization and had ownership issues from pretty much inception.

Also Lecavaliers post lockout contract was something like 22.5 million for 3 years which wasn't that bad for a 26 year old Number one center. This latest debacle was more of a result of the Len Barrie and Oren Koules disaster ownership tandem. Brad Richards was very highly regarded when he signed his 5 year 7.8 million dollar deal, and St.Louis...was more or less making a similar salary to what Alex Tanguay used to make, thats pretty good value for a guy who is an elite offensive player. He did eventually end up making a bad deal for Richards, so again...hopefully there is a lesson learned there.

At the least he's qualified to keep the seat warm and more or less deal with the movable pieces for the rest of this season, until the team decides what direction they want to go and name a full time guy.